


Football Fun

by Syntaria



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Draco's a prat, Football, Gen, Inter-House Cooperation, Inter-House Friendships, Muggle Culture, Soccer, Zabini doesn't care about house rivalry, can't they just be children for once?, hermione and viktor are adorable, muggleborn headcanons, when the non-athletic try writing about sports
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 21:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3583986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syntaria/pseuds/Syntaria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I love quidditch but there's nothing wrong with football. I just never really got to enjoy it.”<br/>“Well, why don't we change that?”<br/>--<br/>Or, that time Dean Thomas and Justin Finch-Fletchley convinced most of the Fourth Year class to enjoy their favourite muggle pass-time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Football Fun

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the early weeks of May, Fourth Year (1995).

Ron is the one who started it.

He was in a foul mood from having seen Hermione and Krum getting cozy under a tree by the lake, Hermione reading out loud from a book in her lap and Krum with a companionable arm around her shoulders. Ron still insisted that she was fraternizing with the enemy, and that was the only reason he was so upset, really. Harry had long since given up telling Ron that he had no problem with Hermione spending time with the Durmstrang champion, and similarly had long since stopped bothering to get him to admit something else about the two of them being together bothered him. With nobody in the dormitory or the rest of the house willing to really agree with him and even less willing to listen to him, Ron had begun to redirect his anger at the concept of football.

He was grumpily poking at Dean's West Ham United poster once again, trying to get the players to move about. Dean was not in the room at the time, for if he was, he would be quick to tell him to sod off and leave the damn thing alone already. The exchange was familiar by now, Ron completely baffled by how anybody could love a sport that didn't involve flying and Dean refusing to take it down, year after year. Harry made a gallant effort at trying to explain the sport before, but Ron had only stared at him as if he were growing a second head. Neville didn't particularly care, as he wasn't very interested in sports outside of spectating, and was sprawled out on his bed, meticulously going over his Herbology report. Seamus was sharing a bag of Bertie Botts with Harry; in truth, he was secretly just as confused as Ron, but as Dean was his best mate, he would never admit it out loud.

Ron was focusing his attention on the ball in the poster, muttering to himself about how anything with stationary images must make for a stupid game, when a spark from his wand caught the edge of the poster on fire. Ron swore loudly, catching the attention of the other boys, who also swore and jumped from their beds. Neville, in his haste to grab their jug of water, spilled it on the ground, and Ron was trying to tug the drapes from his bunk off to smother the small flame. 

So of course it was in this moment of chaos that Dean came back to the dormitory, loudly commenting that it was a beautiful day outside, and why was everybody hiding up in the dorms? It didn't take him more than a second to realize that everybody was crowding around his poster. From the doorway he watched Neville dragging Seamus back by his wand arm to avoid anymore accidental damage, and Harry smothering the small fire with fast pats of a pillow. (Hermione would later ask him why he didn't use Aguamenti, and he would confess that he hadn't really thought about that, eleven years of muggle experience overriding four years of magical education). 

Dean instantly zeroed in on Ron, standing sheepishly next to the poster which was now missing a corner and blackened. But since he was in such a foul mood, instead of apologizing, he started to rave at Dean about how if he only kept posters of a decent wizarding sport he wouldn't have tried charming the poster in the first place. Dean was usually a mild mannered person, but even he had a cut off point. So while Ron yelled, Dean very calmly went to his trunk, pulled out the football he brought with him every year to blow off steam, and chucked it at Ron's head. Ron stopped mid-word, gaping at Dean, who couldn't help the twitch to his lips. 

When Ron started to swear, Dean charmed the football to smack Ron repeatedly on the head. 

Harry, meanwhile, was quietly tapping the edge of the poster with his wand. He muttered “reparo” and the pieces of ash on the floor and the pillow fluttered back up and affixed themselves, though the corner stayed blackened. “Sorry mate,” he spoke to Dean, who was still making the ball chase Ron around the dormitory, “best I could do to fix it. Maybe Hermione would be willing to give it a shot.” Seamus and Neville were positively roaring with laughter as Ron finally managed to get a grip on the ball and held it at arm's length away from his head. His ears burned with emberresment, and Harry was afraid he'd been a foul mood for the rest of the day. He sighed, settling back on his bed and eyeing a greyish bean speculatively. 

“How can you hate something you've never even tried,” Dean asked, after the other boys had calmed down. Ron pushed the ball out of his face with enough force that it bounced off of the bedpost, but he caught it before it hit him again. He scowled at Dean as he held the ball at bay. 

“I don't have to try stupid things to know they're a waste of time! Harry was raised by muggles too, and he plays a proper game now!”

Harry dropped the packet of beans (Seamus grabbed them before they spilt all over the bed) and looked up at the mention of his name. He made a face, “Don't bring me into this. I love quidditch, but there's nothing wrong with football. I just never really got to enjoy it.” He doesn't tell them about Dudley ensuring that none of the other boys at school picked him for the teams, often pretending he wasn't there at all. Harry was almost always forced to play the part of point-keeper, or the only opposing member in a game that quickly became dodgeball instead of football. 

“Well,” Dean said, summoning the ball back into his arms, Ron instinctively ducking from throw that never came, “why don't we change that.”

-

That was how the fourth year Gryffindor boys found themselves on the grounds, Ron grumbling darkly at two shapes near the lake, Dean happily bouncing the ball on his knees as a demonstration. He cheerfully kicked the ball towards Harry, demonstrating how to kick not with the front of the foot, but the inside. Harry knew enough how to stop the ball, having managed to kick one against the school wall a few times when Dudley was preoccupied with torturing other kids. Harry stumbled his way through a few bounces on his knee, though he kept grabbing it out of the air to stop it hitting his face. He kicked the ball towards Seamus, who had watched Dean many times but never tried himself. He in turn quickly passed it to Neville, who frowned in concentration, tongue poking out between his lips. Neville tried to pass it to Ron, who was not paying attention in the first place, but ball arched widely around him and continued to roll all the way over to where a small group of Hufflepuffs were gathered, happily avoiding their homework to enjoy the spring air. 

Dean hollered, “a little help!” and waved, indicating that they pass the ball back. Zacharias Smith frowned at the group and turned his attention back to his book. Ernie Macmillan seemed determined to pretend he hadn't heard, though he had clearly glanced over when Dean yelled. Susan Bones looked curiously at the ball, but it was Justin Finch-Fletchley who grinned at the sight of it. He tucked his toe under and expertly kicked the ball up into, punting it back to the Gryffindor boys with his head. It soared through the air and Dean caught the ball against his chest. Seamus whooped loudly and Ron looked begrudgingly impressed.

“Fancy a game?” Justin asked as he approached the Gryffindor boys. Dean quickly agreed for everybody, and Justin beckoned his fellow Hufflepuffs over. Zacharias and Ernie, however, scowled and resolutely refused. Ernie could be seen muttering to his friends, and Harry had no doubt whatsoever that he was the problem. Ernie and Hannah Abbott had both never made a secret of their opinion of Harry's participation in the Triwizard Tournament, proudly flashing “Support Cedric Diggory, the REAL Hogwarts Champion” badges at him for weeks. To his surprise, however, it looked as though Hannah was arguing with the boy. 

Ron started to make some rather loud comments when Ernie and Zacharias purposely turned their backs and started heading back to the castle, but Harry silenced him with a quick look. If the other Hufflepuffs carried bad blood, that was their problem; Harry and Cedric had made their peace, and Harry didn't want to say or do anything to upset that. Bad enough he was struggling with his jealousy about Cho, after all. 

Justin looked upset, but Hannah and Susan were quick to make their way over. Harry noted, quite pleased, that Hannah was no longer wearing her “Potter Stinks” badge. She actually shyly met his gaze and smiled nervously. Susan seemed just as nervous, and Hannah was quick to turn to the other girl and quietly reassure her that it had been quite a while since she'd last played the game, so they should be on fairly even terms, as Susan had never played before at all. 

“We're short for two full teams,” Dean commented, looking around the grounds to see anymore friendly faces who might want to play. He spotted Parvarti and Lavender coming up from the edge of the forest, probably from where Professor Grubby Plank had first corralled the unicorns; Hagrid had taken to caring for injured foal, and the girls liked to visit the pen in their down time. He waved them over just as Susan caught sight of some Ravenclaw students from their year and did the same for them. 

A curious Hermione and Viktor Krum also approached the group from where they had still been under the tree by the lake. Ron refused to look at them.

“A muggle sport?” Parvati asked after Dean asked them to join, wrinkling her nose just the tiniest bit. 

Lavender elbowed her quietly, her gaze drifting over to Seamus, who was practising passing with Neville. Grinning, she tugged not only Parvati, but a hesitant Mandy Brocklehurst into the circle of gathering students. “How do we pick teams?”

“More importantly, how do we play?” Padma asked, eyebrows raised skeptically as she crossed her arms. 

“The best way to learn is to dive right in!” Terry Boot laughed, throwing his arm around Anthony Goldstein's shoulders. Anthony rolled his eyes, and Susan giggled behind her hand.

Neville nervously approached Hermione, a little shy since he'd asked her to the ball a few months prior, and eyed the slouching figure of Krum behind her. He asked if they were at all interested in playing, as he could use the pointers. Hermione shook her head, instead suggesting that she keep score. She was a competitive person in terms of academics, but couldn't really find the appeal in actually participating in most sports. Viktor looked at the collection of younger students around him, some not even pretending not to stare at him in awe, and adopted his usual scowl. He did not seem seem interested in leaving Hermione's side, though; Harry was torn between amusement and mild irritation, because Ron had started to glower again. 

“Isn't in normally eleven per team?” Harry asked, looking around at their group and only counting fourteen of them. Dean and Hannah were showing the new arrivals the basics of football's footwork, having them each kick the ball in and out of a line of sticks Dean has stuck in the ground. Susan was watching Mandy's attempt, sceptical about playing without being able to pick the ball up. The game was so at odds with Quidditch, “are we supposed to just run around until the other person is exhausted?”, and Ron was nodding firmly in agreement with her words. 

Justin waved a hand dismissively at Harry's observation. “We can manage with seven,” he spoke up, “the real question does come back to picking teams. Should we do boys versus girls?”

Padma quickly dismissed that idea. “The teams would be uneven, both in number and experience. Not to mention in order to pick teams properly, there needs to be some sort of captain for each side.”

“True enough,” Justin nodded. “And I suppose to keep things as fair as possible, we aught to try splitting the people with experience up.” He grinned widely, “I vote myself and Thomas over there as captains, the game was our idea after all.”

Padma flicked her braid back over her shoulder and shrugged. 

Hermione, who had quietly been explaining the game they were trying to set up to Viktor, turned her attention back to the group. “If you're going to play a muggle game, you might as well go with muggle tactics of picking.” She stole one of the sticks Dean had been using for the training exercise and muttered an enlarging charm on it.

Dean left Hannah in charge of explaining the rules to the others, and joined Hermione and Justin. Hermione looked between the two boys, “I presume you're both familiar with this? You take turns grasping the stick...oh honestly.” She rolled her eyes when they smirked and snickered at each other. “Very mature. Anyway, the first one to the top of the stick picks first.” The boys nodded, and it was quickly decided that Dean would be the first to choose. 

“If we're going to play this straight muggle,” Anthony said, “that means no magic at all, right? How are we going to make sure nobody cheats?”

Justin looked offended, as if anybody who thought of cheating was suspect. Padma frowned thoughtfully. “Well, I suppose we could have somebody hold our wands,” she suggested hesitantly, eyeing Hermione. The students appeared just as hesitant of the idea as she herself was in suggesting it. However, they each looked at Hermione, who flushed slightly but stood up straighter under the scrutiny. 

“I'd never let anything happen to them,” she promised, chin held high. Harry wordlessly handed his over, in so doing, silently daring the rest of the group to do so. The Gryffindors were quick to follow (though Ron rather pointedly tried to ignore Viktor's silent form behind Hermione), and Hufflepuffs behind them, and the Ravenclaw crew slowly adding their own to Hermione's quickly conjured and organized boxes. 

Terry wrinkled his nose. “I feel incredibly exposed,” he admitted quietly to Anthony, though Seamus overheard him. 

“Don't worry about it,” he was quick to reassure his classmate, “Hermione's quick. If somebody were daft enough to try picking a fight with Krum around,” and here he nodded to Viktor's rather unmissable form, despite his slouched posture, “she'd probably curse them into some sort of squid food.”

Padma looked questioningly to Parvati and Lavender, as if seeking assurance; the two girls glanced very quickly to one another then nodded. 

Dean got everybody to form a straight line, he and Justin standing on opposite ends of it. “I call Seamus,” he grinned, surprising absolutely nobody.

Hannah was Justin's first pick, and Dean took Harry, so all that was left were the pure and halbloods who didn't have much experience with or knowledge of the game. In the end, Dean's team was composed of himself, Seamus, Harry, Lavender, Anthony, Susan and Padma. Justin gathered Hannah, Terry, Neville, Ron, Parvarti and Mandy in a circle (“it's still called a huddle, Weasley, stop dragging your feet!”) a few feet away from the others. Hermione charmed the sleeves of Dean's team a rich purple, and Justin's team a bright orange, to help herself as referee keep track of the two teams. 

“We vould never be able to play such a game,” Viktor commented quietly to Hermione as the two of them settled down on the grass, “too many haff issue with muggle kustoms.” He offered Hermione his hand to take what little sting from his words he could, and Hermione took it without comment. Her other clutched the boxes of wands to her chest, and Krum's other hand held his own wand. “They are silly, very closed in thinking. I am...curious. Haff no problem with vatching game.”

“I admit I'd rather keep reading with you,” Hermione blushed lightly as she spoke, but continued, “but it's quite rare the houses interact with one another like this. It's usually all competition, maybe some study groups. We don't often associate with one another outside of lessons in groups like this.”

“There are none from the table I eat at?”

“Ah, well, I'm afraid the Slytherins are a bit more...” Hermione paused, searching her mind for the right words in an attempt to stay diplomatic. “They're more likely to share your school's base sentiments,” she finally settled on, squeezing his hand to take the sting from her own words away. “Ah, look, they're ready to start.” 

Dean had sketched rough boundary lines along the grass with the excess sticks from the earlier formation, and both boys ran around their teammates, adjusting where each stood in offensive or defensive positions. Lavender had tied her hair back into a bun and had opted to try her hand at being goalie. Ron, still refusing to run after a ball when flying was clearly the better option, had been stuck in the goal for his team. Once they were satisfied with everybody's placements, Dean and Justin met in the middle of the field, shook hands, and turned to Hermione. The ball sat between them, and sheepishly Justin called, “Granger! We need somebody to flip the coin!” 

Viktor pulled a Galleon out of his robe and wordlessly held it up, arching his heavy brow when they looked at him in shock. He flipped the coin in the air; Justin won the call, and with that, the game finally went underway.

To say that it was chaos would be an understatement. 

Padma was a surprisingly aggressive player, charging indiscriminately at whichever opposing team member held the ball. This brought out a fierce competitive spirit between her and Parvati, who adopted the same tactic. Needless to say, this confused the hell out of both teams, who kept having to stop and check the colour on the sleeves of the twin girls to ensure which was on their team. Neville kept tripping over uneven tufts of grass, and though he was soon bright red from a combination of exertion and embarrassment, he continued to push himself up and keep trying. Hannah, despite being on the opposing team, would stop every once in a while to help him brush off the worst of the dirt. 

Dean was a loud, unashamed trash talker on restarts, and Terry was just as quick to retaliate. Harry mostly found himself on the sidelines, following the ball with his sharp, seeker eyes, and waiting for somebody to kick it wild before getting into the game. Susan, who true to her own assessment, mostly ran back and forth after the ball, seemed to be having the time of her life, her grin threatening to split her face even when she lost possession of the ball. Mandy opted to stick near the goal and help Ron with defence. 

For his part, though he seemed determined at the start of the game to be a stick in the mud, Ron couldn't help his own grin whenever he stopped a goal. Seamus and Anthony weren't nearly as competitive as the others on their team, but they passed to one another and made the most attempts at the goal. The biggest surprise was probably how hard Lavender worked as goal keeper. Normally quite concerned about her looks, Lavender seemed to have forgotten anybody else was around at all as she had no problem diving into the dirt to stop anything getting past her. Her smile turned almost feral whenever Justin in particular made an attempt to shoot and she managed to catch it; Dean matched her grin whenever he caught her eye.

When somebody ran into one another (which happened quite a few times at first, the Patil twins in particular knocking eachother down) or committed any obvious foul, Viktor would bring his pinky fingers to his mouth at Hermione's request and blow a sharp whistle. Hermione would then quickly call out “yellow”, never willing to send anybody off with a red card, and not quite understanding the rules intimately enough to “call black”. Dean and Justin occasionally called back, booing if they didn't agree with her decision. Hermione stood firm in her decisions, however, and Viktor's scowl grew so prominent when they questioned her that both boys decided that perhaps teasing Hermione wasn't the best idea, fate of the game on the line or otherwise.

Some of the younger students, excited muggleborns in particular, had begun to gather around the pseudo-field to watch. The grounds were filled with shouts and cheers as the game went through its first half, though nobody seemed sure which team to cheer for. Instead, they began to hoot and holler when one of their friends did something particularly entertaining. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan shouted down from the Gryffindor tower, though nobody could quite make out their words. They could, however, notice the sparks that kept flying from the window, and the confetti that came drifting down onto the field like snow. Some of the other sixth years, free from the looming stress of O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S, poked their heads out of the windows on the lower levels of the castles. They catcalled at the players, which mostly went ignored, safe for Angelina Johnson's enthusiastic call of “hustle, hustle!”. 

Collin Creevy enthusiastically took pictures, going so far as to climb a tree nearby to get a better vantage point. 

Ginny Weasley plopped herself down next to Hermione when they reached half time and asked, “So how do you know when the game's over?” 

Before Hermione could answer, a surprising voice spoke up from the other side of Viktor. “Whichever team has the most points at the end of two fourty-five minute plays wins. What they win, aside from the need for a cool drink and a hot shower, would be my concern. I doubt they even stopped to consider that, though.”

Hermione and Ginny leaned forward to see who had spoken, Viktor glancing to the side and nodding slightly in acknowledgement. Blaise Zabini nodded in return before retuning his attention to the field, where the freshly watered and stretched players were restarting the game. He maintained his permanent almost bored expression, chin propped in his palm. His eyes, however, followed the ball with the same attention he awarded the quaffle during a Quidditch match. 

Ginny narrowed her eyes suspiciously, “Sometimes the fun of the game is all you need. It's not always about winning something.”

Blaise smirked, refusing to comment anymore. Somehow, that rankled Ginny, but Hermione placed a calming hand to her shoulder and asked the younger girl what she thought of the game itself.

On the field, the players were hard pressed to ignore the gathered crowd. As a result, they began to play with more exaggerated moves, and no little amount of clumsy mistakes. Dean tried a slide tackle to get the ball away from Terry, who managed to jump over his leg, swearing colourfully. Justin had started heading the ball whenever possible, much to the annoyance of his teammates who had not quite mastered stopping it with the feet, much less their chests or own foreheads. Neville surprised everybody when he kicked the ball so hard it sailed down the entire field and Lavender just missed catching it over her shoulder. Harry, despite it being a score against his own team, clapped Neville hard on the back, beaming, and Neville turned quite red when the crowd cheered.

“Figures Longbottom would do well in a filthy muggle sport, the squib,” came a very familiar, unwelcome sneer from Blaise's side. Hermione resolutely refused to react to Draco Malfoy's words, though Viktor felt her tense next to him, and he scowled at the blonde. Zabini rolled his eyes, though made no obvious move against Malfoy's presence or opinion. 

Ginny had no such qualms, leaning behind the three between them and casually casting a Bat-Bogey Hex at Malfoy. Rather unfortunately it missed him, but it did hit Gregory Goyle, who had snickered at the comment and now yelped, trying to keep the flying greyish creatures within his nose. Vincent Crabbe started to pull him off towards the castle and Madame Pomfrey. It was hard to tell whether Draco had noticed his companion's problem, for instead of threatening to summon a teacher, he turned away saying only “if the mudblood lovers want to play around like sweaty neanderthals, I don't have to watch them disgrace wizardkind”. 

Blaise quietly wondered how Draco even knew what a neanderthal was, but supposed that even the Malfoys would be hard-pressed to prove that wizards and muggles did not at least share the same base ancestor.

All of this drama went unnoticed by the players, however, for the last five minutes of the game were in play. According to the shining orange and purple numbers which hung over Hermione and Viktor's heads, the score was seven to eight, in favour of Dean's team. 

Mandy managed to steal the ball away from Padma, kicking it a little wildly towards Hannah, who rushed it back towards Lavender's goal. Anthony appeared out of seemingly nowhere, knocking the ball nearly out of play, but Harry managed to stop it and kick it back towards Susan. Susan stumbled when Parvati rushed in front of her, trying to block her progress, but Seamus was open and nearby, so she kicked it to him. Terry, however, was faster, and he managed to intercept the ball. 

Hermione was counting down the minutes on her watch, so she missed when Terry and Dean collided, only looking up to signal time and cue Viktor's shrill whistle that ended the game. 

While the crowd cheered and Cedric Diggory approached Harry to question him about the game, Dean pushed himself up, and sheepishly offered Terry a hand up as well. Terry's knee was scrapped and bleeding a little, encrusted with dirt from the hard fall, but so was Dean's elbow. They grinned good naturedly at one another. With the game over, each of the players took stock of how dirty they had become, each sporting numerous grass stains on their clothes. The Patil twins were laughing at each other, both covered in dirt from a brief scuffle they had had when the ball rolled out of bounds between the two of them. Hermione had almost called red card then, but Justin and Dean had broken it up quickly, and neither girl seemed very upset.

“That was a lot of fun,” Hannah commented, red faced from exertion, as she walked up to where Dean and Justin were shaking hands again, exchanging “good game” and some last minute trash talk (though Justin couldn't bring himself to the same extremes that Terry could). “I haven't had that much fun playing football since before I started coming to Hogwarts. I'm so glad we decided to stay and play!” 

Tucking the ball under his arm, Dean grinned. “Never a problem. If you guys want to make this a regular thing, I'm always willing to play a good match.”

“Alright,” Ron started to say as he walked towards them, wiping the sweat from his brow, “so it's not that stupid a sport after all. Quidditch is still better of course.”

Harry rolled his eyes, but Dean and Seamus laughed out loud, shaking their heads. “Stubborn aint he?” Seamus posed the question to the entire group, but only Anthony and Susan nodded their agreement. The tips of Ron's ears went slightly pink, but Justin punched him in the shoulder with a grin. Lavender was checking herself in a compact mirror and shaking her head, laughing at herself, while Mandy pushed her sticky bangs back from her forehead and seemed to eye the lake speculatively.

Neville, seeing her, shook his head, “it's still too early in the season. You might freeze in the lake...” 

Hermione and Viktor shared a glance, and Viktor's expression softened while Hermione blushed and looked away. Harry knew they were thinking of how cold it had been during the second task, which Cedric seemed about to comment on, but bit his tongue when Harry quite obviously elbowed him. Instead, he turned his attention to his fellow Hufflepuffs, happily commending them on representing their house so well. Justin, Susan and Hannah beamed. Lavender seemed to be trying to surreptitiously clean herself up in his presence. 

Padma was the first to come up to Hermione, reaching her hand out for her wand. Hermione offered her the Ravenclaw box, which she hurriedly took over to the rest of her housemates. “Cheers!” Anthony Goldstein called out to her as he retrieved his wand. Terry immediately doused himself with a torrent of water when he had his wand back. 

Ginny hurriedly grabbed the Gryffindor box from Hermione and walked to distract her older brother from the two, determined to make him stop acting like a prat. Parvati and Lavender quickly grabbed their wands and ran ahead, determined to hit the Gryffindor showers. Harry waved towards Hermione as he and Ginny grabbed Ron under the armpit and all but dragged him towards the castle before he could be an arse about Krum and spoil everybody's good mood (his own worst of all). The rest of the Gryffindors boys followed a bit more slowly, Neville making a valiant attempt at bouncing the ball on his knees as he walked (Dean summoned it back to him when it bounced away).

Viktor took the Hufflepuff box and walked over to his fellow champion. Justin seemed to stumble over his words as he accepted the box, which Susan took from him and sorted each of their wands. Cedric laughed, thumping Viktor about the back, and began to herd his house mates back to the castle. “Trust me,” he was saying, “you'll want to shower before your body realizes how sore you are.”

The crowd that had gathered to watch had dispersed before the players themselves had. When the Hufflepuffs were gone, there was only Viktor, Hermione and Blaise remaining on the grounds. Zabini maked a soft noise from where he was still sitting, now beside, Hermione.

“Weasley has a point,” he said, standing and brushing stray grass from his robes. “No sport will ever stand up to Quidditch. But I will say this about muggles; they know how to entertain.” With that parting remark, he strolled off without a backwards glance. 

Hermione huffed, reaching for her book again, when Viktor stopped her. He stooped back down in front of her, picked her book up in one hand, stood, and extended his other down to help her stand up. She smiled and took it, the both of them much more open in their affection without such a great crowd. 

“Hermy-own-ninny, there is getting chill in air. You should return to castle. I vill valk you to dormitory.”

“Thank you, Viktor, that is quite kind,” she smiled. He smiled somewhat shyly in return.

“Perhaps you vould speak vith me of other muggle kustoms? I confess their sports and tek-now-lod-gee haff alvays seemed strange, but I am still curious. Vat is it like to be muggleborn in this,” he gestures towards the school, at a loss for a real word. 

Hermione hummed quietly in thought as they walked back towards the castle.

“Where to start...”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. This work is not beta read, so if you spot any mistakes, please feel free to let me know. My knowledge of football/soccer is basically the wikipedia article, so any input on that too is also welcomed.


End file.
